1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an obstacle detection device and, in particular, to an obstacle detection device capable of checking an obstacle in the blind corner of a vehicle with a simple device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional blind corner check devices include one that utilizes a method of picking up an image by capturing a landscape in an image sensor through a lens and uses two image sensors in order to widen a field of view and has a pole mounted at the corner of a vehicle body, whose shape is like a trunk antenna of the so called automobile mobile telephone (for example, see patent document 1).
Moreover, conventional vehicle mounted left-right check devices include one that utilizes a method of picking up an image by capturing a landscape in an image sensor through a lens and is made capable of checking obstacles in both left and right directions in forward of a vehicle by a pair of devices which has a lens focusing on an image pickup unit arranged in the whole portion of a pole (for example, see patent document 2).    [Patent Document 1] Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-29316    [Patent Document 2] Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 6-64478
Since the conventional blind corner check devices are composed in the above described manner, they present the following problems: an image needs to be picked up by capturing a landscape in an image sensor through a lens and a set of image pickup system can pick up only as narrow a region as 180 degrees or less, so two image sensors need to be used so as to widen the field of view, which results in increasing cost; and in addition, the pole mounted at the corner of vehicle body needs to be shaped like the trunk antenna and hence is undesirable in terms of styling and cannot be retractable when unnecessary.
Moreover, since the conventional vehicle mounted left-right check devices are composed in the above described manner, they present the following problems: a set of image pickup system can pick up only as narrow a region as 180 degrees or less, as is the case with the above blind corner check device, and obstacles in a left and right directions in forward of the vehicle need to be checked by a pair of devices, which results in increasing cost and works of mounting and wiring; both sides of the vehicle body cannot be checked; and the lens focusing on the image pickup unit needs to be arranged in the whole portion of the pole, which results in making it difficult to realize a multi steps electrical retractable pole.